that's par for the course.
The Sword of Shannara has drawn extensive criticism from critics who believe that Brooks derived too much of his novel from Tolkien's
The Lord of the Rings. In 1978, American fantasy editor
Lin Carter denounced
The Sword of Shannara as "the single most cold-blooded, complete rip-off of another book that I have ever read".
[31] He further wrote that "Terry Brooks wasn't trying to imitate Tolkien's prose, just steal his story line and complete cast of characters, and he did it with such clumsiness and so heavy-handedly, that he virtually rubbed your nose in it."
[31] Roger C. Schlobin was kinder in his assessment, though he still thought that
The Sword of Shannara was a disappointment because of its similarities to
The Lord of the Rings.
[32] Brian Attebery accused
The Sword of Shannara of being "undigested Tolkien" which was "especially blatant in its point-for-point correspondence" with
The Lord of the Rings.
[33] In an educational article on writing, author
Orson Scott Card cited
The Sword of Shannara as a cautionary example of overly derivative writing, finding the work "artistically displeasing" for this reason.
[34]
Tolkien scholar
Tom Shippey writes that the novel is distinctive for "the dogged way in which it follows Tolkien point for point".
[35] Shippey located
analogues for Tolkien characters within Brooks' novel, such as
Sauron (Brona),
Gandalf (Allanon), the
Hobbits (Shea and Flick),
Aragorn (Menion),
Boromir (Balinor),
Gimli (Hendel),
Legolas (Durin and Dayel),
Gollum (Orl Fane), the
Barrow-wight (Mist Wraith), the
Nazgûl (Skull Bearers), and
Tom Bombadil (King of the Silver River), among others.
[35] He also found plot similarities to events in
The Lord of the Rings, such as the
Fellowship of the Ring's formation and adventures, the journeys to
Rivendell (Culhaven) and
Lothlórien (Storlock), Gandalf's (Allanon) fall in
Moria (Paranor) and subsequent reappearance, and the
Rohirrim's arrival at the
Battle of the Pelennor Fields (Battle of Tyrsis), among others.
[35] Shippey attributes the book's success to the post-Tolkien advent of the fantasy genre: "What
The Sword of Shannara seems to show is that many readers had developed the taste ... for
heroic fantasy so strongly that if they could not get the real thing they would take any substitute, no matter how diluted."
[35]
Terry Brooks has said that Tolkien's works were a major influence in his writing,
[36] though he has also said that Tolkien was not his only influence. Other influences included his editor Lester del Rey, as well as the many different books which he had read over his life. Also, mythology and ancient civilizations that he had learned about in school gave him a wealth of knowledge from which he drew. Many of these influences are reflected in his books, he claims.
[11]
Author
Gene Wolfe defended Brooks' derivation of material from Tolkien in a 2001
Interzone essay: "Terry Brooks has often been disparaged for imitating Tolkien, particularly by those reviewers who find his books inferior to Tolkien's own. I can say only that I wish there were more imitators—we need them—and that all imitations of so great an original must necessarily be inferior."
[37] Dune author
Frank Herbert also defended Brooks:
[38] "Brooks demonstrates that it doesn't matter where you get the idea; what matters is that you tell a rousing story."
John Batchelor feels that it was the weakest of the 1977 surge in fantasy, ranking it below
Stephen R. Donaldson's
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever, Seamus Cullen's
Astra and Flondrix, and
The Silmarillion, edited by
Christopher Tolkien, while commenting that it "unabashedly copies"
Lord of the Rings.
[39] The Pittsburgh Press feels that
Sword embodies the Tolkien spirit and tradition but is quite able to stand apart from
Lord of the Rings.
[40]